Summary: It's funny how you adjust to life and the weather where ever you live. Cold in one place is completely different in another. Harling shares his experiences in Sussex, England.

I admit to being a bit of a prat about the weather here in that I derive great delight from writing to friends and family back in upstate New York, regaling them with tales of how I am sitting on my balcony enjoying a beverage and watching the daffodils sway gently in the warm, February breeze while they are slogging though blizzards and enduring yet another hideously soul draining, mind numbing, bone cracking season that we in the north eastern US innocuously named winter.

I know it's annoying, but if you don't like the weather, move.

Well, the gods or karma or whatever you believe in seem to have heard about this and they aren't letting it slip by; for over a week now it has been abnormally cold. Okay, so cold here generally equates to about 34 degrees but when you're used to walking around in a tee shirt and a light jacket, it comes as quite a surprise. And, as I write this--rumbling through the Sussex countryside on a drafty commuter bus en route to my office in Brighton--it is as cold as I have ever seen it; -5C, or 22F. I don't think the daffodils are happy.

The main reason the cold in England feels so cold is that no one is prepared for it; rain they can handle, but they don't know beans about cold.

For one thing, all their houses are built of brick or concrete. Not exactly the cosiest of substances. Even on the warmest of days the walls, feel cool and in the winter they simply ooze frigid air. No one seems to have figured this out yet either, as all new dwellings are erected using brick, mortar and poured concrete, which has the dual effect of providing a super-highway for the cold and damp as well as possessing all the visual appeal of a milk carton.

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About the Author I am originally from Upstate New York and moved to Sussex, UK in 2002. I have recently published a book titled, "Postcards From Acoss the Pond," a humorous look at life in the UK through the eyes of an accidental expat.

First Published: Jan 24, 2009